If you need some inspiration to get off the couch and into your pilates studio, go see the gorgeously sculpted acrobatic superheroes performing in the off-Broadway show “Traces.”  Talk about precision, control, power and grace – all the things the pilates student tries to attain for their own body.

“Traces” is a stripped-down, bass-heavy, urbanized version of the famously glittering and other worldly Cirque du Soleil.  “Traces” is deliberately casual and informally charming.  The performers wear loose street clothes.  As they perform, they chat with the audience, tell jokes, flirt with each other, ride skateboards and play basketball.  (At one point a skateboard flew toward the audience and landed between the heads of two middle-aged blond women in the row in front of me.  Thankfully they turned out to be the aunts of one of the performers so they just laughed and put their point-and-shoots right back up to continue taping the show.  No, you are not supposed to do that.)

The kids of “Traces” are alumni of various Cirque du Soleil shows according to their Playbill bios.  (They really are kids:  at one point each one takes the mike and tells you they were born in 1986.  Except for one old guy who says he was born in 1985.  But he’s Asian so you can’t tell how old he is anyway.)  At an age when most kids have just started their careers as Assistant Assistants and spend their evenings slamming PBRs with their roommates, these kids are at the peak of their game.  Through the light humor, they are savvy circus artists – precise masters of their gravity-defying bodies.  Still, as with all live performance, there is the chance for error.  Here the performers are encouraged by their director to make mistakes as part of the de-pageanting of the circus experience.  When we were there, we saw them miss a few jumps at the end of the show.  But they just re-set their hoops, tried again and nailed it.  The audience went insane.

Throughout the show we could hear people all around us:  “No!”  “No way!”  “Oh my god!”.  At one point a shirtless performer wound himself up to the ceiling in a series of slow backflips while hanging from two silks.  I could see muscles where I don’t ever see muscles and I’m staring at bodies all day: lats, muscles on the lats, the muscles over his ribs, between his ribs.  Rippling, toned, perfectly controlled muscle everywhere.  Then from the row behind us we heard:

“He’s hot,” gasped a woman in the audience.

“Can’t argue with you,” her husband replied.

Tickets are on sale on Gilt City today for $49.  Go and be reminded of what your amazing human body can do when it is strong and moving with grace, power and precision!

Let’s take a moment to appreciate the vegan and vegetarian restaurants options we enjoy as a part of living in this harried big city.  You can find anything in this town, including mock duck dim sum and mock fried chicken.  Now mock meat is not my thing:  isn’t the whole point of being a vegetarian to eat vegetables, not imitations of things that you’ve eliminated from your diet?  If you miss meat that much, then just eat real meat.  Nevertheless I will admit that soy buffalo wings and soy chicken nuggets that taste good are a pretty impressive achievement.  Five restos to try:

Soy & Sake Popcorn "Shrimp"

Soy & Sake

Offers many mock meats – mostly soy based.  Eating these dishes may not feel as sinful as eating real meat but it’s probably best to treat soy meat the way you would treat real fried meat:  as an occasional treat.  Plates of their soy buffalo wings in citrus BBQ sauce were on most of the tables around us.  The wings get good reviews from Yelp, have a little fake wooden “drumstick” up the center and are possibly more filling than the real thing.

Village Natural

This place is located underneath one of those West Village fern bars.  I just heard this term for the first time the other day and I imagine it to mean drooping spider plants in the corners hanging from plastic buckets, pale grey-ponytailed people wearing Tevas and drinking non-artisanal beer.  I would never knowingly go into such a place so tell me if I guessed right.

Anyway, Village Natural looks like an extension of this bar and is thus has a sawdust-y, dirty hippie lack of appeal when you see it from the street.  But once you step down into the restaurant, it’s a pleasantly light and clean.  The tables are blond wood, there are specials written cozily on a chalkboard against the wall and the servers are smiley and quick.  We went just before 1PM on a Saturday and it was empty.  Within 20 minutes the place was packed.  My neighbor at the next booth was bouncing and jiggling my seat for quite a while so if your neighbor’s fidgeting will bother you, ask for a table.  Their breakfast combo with scrambled tofu and multi-grain pancakes is the best:  a little sweet, a little salty.  There are also buckwheat waffles which are even heartier than the multi-grain with a grainy texture and a pleasingly purple color.  (Is purple the color of buckwheat in the wild?  Or is it brown as in soba noodles?  Wondering.)

Gobo

Ah, dear spacious, celebrity-sprinkled Gobo.  I used to come here all the time when I lived down the street and they were new.  I saw Hugh Jackman once in the front window, sipping a smoothie and looking like he was waiting for take-out.

Gobo used to have a bread guy who glided around the room dispensing your choice or cranberry or whole wheat onto your bread plate.  But either he’s gone or he’s allowed to play favorites and we didn’t make the list.  Gobo’s dishes are still  very good but it tastes like some of their recipes have changed.  Back in the day my favorites were the avocado tartare, salt and pepper oyster mushrooms and butternut squash risotto.  Their tartare is still great but isn’t as close to tartare texture as it used to be.  The salt and pepper oyster mushrooms?  GONE!  (Why Gobo?  Why remove their salty, crunchy goodness?!)  No explanation, no time to investigate, just gone.  Their butternut squash risotto used to be hearty and nutty and now has a haute cuisine flowery-ness to it.  It is delicate and interesting but not I’ll-fight-you-for-the-last-spoonful good.

Still a good place to get your tall and lanky celeb sighting on though:  saw Matthew Modine and family dining at the next table.

VivaHerbal

VivaHerbal produces the most filling pizza I’ve ever had.  I’ve spent quite a few evenings sitting at the park across the street battling a huge slice of spelt crust Magic Mushroom pizza.  Even without the cheese these slices are topped with whole chunky vegetables like broccoli and their spelt and cornmeal crusts are much more filling than the standard squishy white thin crust you get in the conventional slice-o-matic on the corner.  You can order delivery too.  One large pizza is probably enough to feed a regular person for a week.

Caravan of Dreams

Last time I was at Caravan I was with my vegetarian friend and we had the vegan pizza.  I remember that we sat outside and the pizza was very green and pesto-y.  We loved it but for some reason never went back.  It is a bit pricier that comparable options.  Head over for brunch on Sunday and found the inside much more charming that you would think judging but the typical grungy East Village tables parked outside.  We sat all the way in the quiet backroom which is much cooler than the main room.  Service was quite slow but our waiter was apologetic.  I had the virgin sangria which was convincingly tart and fruity.  The pancakes are better at Village Natural.  My breakfast burrito (no cheese) was tasty and satisfying.  My boyfriend’s tofu scramble wasn’t as good as the one at Village Natural.  (The yummy dish there was the whole reason he ordered it here.)

That’s it.  Feel free to feel other favorites (and why) in the comments below.  Happy eating!